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Steve was startled from his pile of marking by an intimately familiar voice, eyes darting up to find a handful of his students gathered around a phone - Dustin Henderson's phone. Shaking away the spike of hope and the sinking disappointment that followed, Steve cleared his throat, raising an eyebrow at the group when they glanced up at him. "I'm pretty sure I didn't have TikTok on my lesson plan for today."
Dustin, at least, had the humility to look sheepish. "Sorry, Mr Harrington..." Tucking his phone away as his classmates grumbled and shuffled back to their seats, he sighed, "But our favourite band's making an announcement today."
Gaze dropping just briefly to Dustin's Corroded Coffin t-shirt, Steve suppressed the urge to smile. "I'm sure you'll be able to see what it is at lunchtime." As he turned back to his marking, he added, "If I see the phone again before the end of the period, I'm gonna have to confiscate it."
"Yes, sir."
Taking a deep breath through his nose, Steve tried to settle himself. Knowing his students were Corroded Coffin fans was one thing; hearing Eddie's voice in the middle of class, when he'd last seen him in person nearly two months ago, was another. His fingers twitched for his phone, but he wasn't about to warn a student about mobiles in class and then break his own rule.
When the bell rang for the end of the lesson, Steve made sure to call out, "I'd like everyone's essays in my inbox by 10pm on Friday." As his students scrambled to pack away their things, he fished his phone from his pocket.
Steve
Really fucking missing you today
❤️Eds 🎸✊
Something happen??
Steve
Not really. Just miss you
❤️Eds 🎸✊
Soon baby. One last show ❤️❤️
Steve
Then I get you all to myself?
❤️Eds 🎸✊
At least for a few months. Promise 🙏
You can sit in my lap all you want 😉
Steve
Not strictly what I'm missing but I won't say no
❤️Eds 🎸✊
What do you miss specifically?
Steve
Your voice
❤️Eds 🎸✊
Baby... 💔 I'll call you later
Maybe a little repeat of that call in Cali...? 😏
Steve
Menace
❤️Eds 🎸✊
Love you baby 😘
Steve
Love you too
"Mr Harrington...?"
Trying to school his stupid grin into something a little more teacherly, Steve glanced up to find Dustin hovering by his desk. "What can I do for you, Mr Henderson?"
With a quick look back at his friends, who were rolling their eyes impatiently, Dustin mumbled, "Sorry for interrupting class."
Steve sighed. "You've clever, Henderson, but learning's a lot harder for some other students. Appreciate your apology, though."
"Dus-tin," huffed one of his friends, Mike, from behind him. "C'mon, stop being teacher's pet."
"Dude, we're gonna be late," Will insisted from Mike's side. "Lucas is gonna be waiting."
Steve gave Dustin a nod and waved him away, sending the three students off to next period as his next class began to file in. "Soon," he murmured to the messages still open on his phone, breathing a sigh through his nose before locking the screen and setting it aside for his next lesson.
"Um... Mr Harrington?"
Dustin's voice had Steve looking up from his lunch at his desk, trying desperately to trawl through all his marking before the weekend. "Hmm?"
"Um, can we...?" Dustin glanced back at his friends, who all wore desperately impatient expressions. "Is it okay if we sit in here for lunch? Just, we wanna watch that band's announcement and the cafeteria's loud..."
With an easy nod, Steve waved his hand towards the desks. "Go for it. Just not too loud, yeah?"
A chorus of hushed 'thank you's preceded the group of teenagers bustling into the room and gathering around a desk. Steve knew all of them from his classes; Dustin, Mike, and Will from third period, and Lucas, Max, and El from his morning class. They were quite the little crowd, heads all pressed together to see Dustin's phone.
"What's up, my fiendish friends?"
The voice from Dustin's phone made Steve's heart squeeze, keeping his eyes on his marking but unable to focus anymore.
"You guys probably know Corroded Coffin's almost at the end of our North American tour, and we just wanted to let you all know it's the last you'll be seeing of us for a little while."
Quiet, horrified gasps from the teenagers.
"We've spent the past eighteen months touring and recording and touring again... Life of the road's hard when you have to leave the people you love behind. So, we're just gonna chill for a few months. Not totally sure how long yet, but we'll be back in the studio writing new stuff for you all when our families get sick of looking at us."
Steve could imagine the big dumb grin on Eddie's face, and the way he would be waving his hands as he spoke.
"I know for a fact my baby misses me. As much as I love the music and all you amazing fans, there's someone important I gotta give some loving to for a while."
The way Steve's heart leapt was frankly ridiculous given that he'd known about this announcement for weeks. He took a slow breath to steady himself, moving his pen a little as if he was doing his job and not fawning over the voice of his favourite person.
"So, we're gonna make tonight's show a great one, since it's gonna be our last for a while. We wanna thank everyone for being so fucking supportive all the time; you're the best fans in the world. Rock on, freaks!"
Silence settled over the classroom.
"They're taking a break?!" Lucas blurted out.
"They're human," Max pointed out with a shrug. "They've got families."
"No, you don't understand," Lucas stressed, waving a hand emphatically at Dustin's phone. "Taking a break is the death of a band! It always starts as a break, then it just goes on and on and on and on and-"
"A bit like you?" Max smirked.
"He sounds like he misses his baby," El hummed.
A scoff from Mike. "He's walking away from his career for his girlfriend?"
Steve bit into his lip hard to keep from snorting.
"Well, I think it's dead romantic," Max said matter-of-factly, folding her arms. "His girl matters more to him than popularity." She shot Lucas a pointed look.
Before Lucas could protest the accusation, Will, with his eyes still on Dustin's silent phone, murmured, "I always thought he was gay."
Five jaws dropped, stunned stares aimed at Will.
"What?" Mike scoffed.
"The guy who sings Pillow Princess?" Dustin snorted. "Gay?"
"You can be my pillow princess,
"You can bite my pillow, princess," Max sing-songed. "That's definitely not about a guy."
With a half-hearted shrug, Will mumbled, "S'just a vibe I get."
"He's not gay!" Lucas exclaimed, still gesturing wildly. "Look at him."
"Mr Harrington?" When Steve glanced up, Dustin held his phone up to reveal the final frame of Eddie's announcement frozen on the screen. "Do you think he looks gay?"
Something in Steve's gut tugged at the disappointed downturn of Will's eyes. "I'd say looks have nothing to do with someone's sexuality," he answered evenly, catching the way Will seemed to sit up a little. "And even if he was gay; would there really be a problem with that?"
A moment of nothing, then Dustin admitted, "S'pose not..."
"But his songs!" Lucas protested.
"I guess he never really uses female pronouns," Max hummed, tilting her head in consideration.
Lucas rolled his eyes. "Apart from princess."
Shaking his head, Steve pointed out, "Lots of artists are starting to avoid using gendered pronouns in songs, specifically so their music is gender neutral."
Another dramatic eye-roll. "Do you even know Corroded Coffin?"
Steve struggled to contain his smirk. "I do." Folding his arms on his desk, he commented, "I don't think they're exactly appropriate for your age group, though."
Mike raised an eyebrow at him. "Why?"
"Because some of their lyrics are hyper sexualised," Steve explained slowly, unsure whether his students were playing dumb.
Yet another eye-roll, this time from Mike. "We're fifteen."
Nope, definitely not playing dumb.
"Besides, Eddie Munson's super cool," Dustin chimed in, shaking his phone for emphasis.
"And abandoning his music for a girl," Mike huffed.
"I'm still pretty sure he's gay," Will mumbled, picking at his fingers.
Oh, how Steve wished he could settle this debate. Poor Will was so downtrodden, and it was clear to Steve that his friends had no idea how much their words were hurting him.
"Alright," Steve sighed, waving towards the door. "You've watched your video. Now I need some quiet to get through the rest of these papers." As his students shuffled towards the door, he added, "Will, stay a second?"
Once his friends had vanished into the hall, Will stepped up beside Steve's desk, his expression settling somewhere between confusion and fear.
Lowering his voice with a conspiratorial smile, Steve told him, "He is gay."
Will's eyes went wide.
"I've got it on good authority," Steve smirked. Watching more confusion flicker across Will's face, he murmured, "He's still cool though, huh?"
A moment of processing, then realisation filled Will's eyes. "Yeah..."
Steve gave him a firm nod, then held his fist out to Will, who huffed half a little laugh and bumped Steve's knuckles with his own. "Go on," Steve chuckled. "Go enjoy your lunch."
The tiniest smile now immovable from his face, Will hurried off after his friends, leaving Steve with warmth in his gut in the knowledge of a good deed done.
Steve was on lunch duty on Friday afternoon when he noticed students funnelling towards the exit. He followed with a frown, wandering through the waves of whispering teenagers, following their collective gaze to the parking lot.
Oh.
Oh.
Parked over two spaces on the opposite side of the lot was a matte black Mustang, engine off and driver still seated. The moment the driver's eyes found Steve, they lit up, a wide grin spreading across his face as he climbed out of the car and moved to stand leaning against the hood with his arms folded casually.
"What...?" Heart in his throat as he stepped forward and ushered back the growing gaggle of increasingly excited teenagers, Steve swallowed hard before striding out across the parking lot.
The grin aimed at him widened impossibly. "Hello, handsome."
"Ed..." Glancing quickly over his shoulder to the gathered students, Steve hissed, "Eddie, what the fuck?"
Undeterred, Eddie pushed off the car and stepped right up to Steve, sweeping his ringed fingers through Steve's hair and dragging him into a kiss. "Missed you, baby," he murmured against Steve's lips.
"You know there's an entire school's worth of teenagers with phones staring at us, right?" Steve whispered.
"I don't care." Pressing their foreheads together, Eddie sighed, "I'm tired of pretending. I don't give a shit if the world decides they hate me for loving you, or if all the Corroded Coffin fans in the world turn their backs on me; I miss you." All the confidence from Eddie's entrance had shrivelled up, leaving the far more fragile man Steve had come to love. "I don't care if people know anymore, I just want you."
Hands settling on Eddie's hips, Steve closed his eyes for a moment to pull himself back together. "Okay," he murmured, thumb stroking back and forth over Eddie's hip bone. "But maybe warn me next time you're planning on dropping a media bombshell, yeah?"
Eddie's cheeky smirk crept up his face. "Yeah... But surprising you was fun." He twisted his fingers further into Steve's hair, dragging him into another kiss.
Though his hands grasped at the waist of Eddie's band t-shirt, Steve forced himself back from Eddie's mouth. "Much as I wanna make up for the months I haven't had you here," he panted softly, "all my students are watching us."
"So?" Eddie grinned, nipping at Steve's lower lip.
"I'm their teacher, Eddie."
Pushing his lip out in a playful pout, Eddie batted his eyelashes and asked, "You don't wanna be my pillow princess?"
Steve's hands clenched in Eddie's shirt as his eyes rolled back. "I'll be home at four," he mumbled around a kiss. "You better be ready for me, you fucking menace."
The cheeky light radiating from Eddie's face soothed all the aches of an empty bed and lonely nights. "Soon as you're in the door."
"And you're gonna owe me."
Eddie's eyebrow quirked up in confusion. "Why?"
Exhaling slowly, Steve explained, "At least six of my students are massive CC fans, and I can practically feel Henderson's questions coming." The corner of his mouth ticked up into a smirk. "Though you've definitely settled an argument they were having after your announcement about the break."
Eddie just hummed curiously.
"None of the others agreed, but one of them was convinced you're gay."
A loud laugh barked from Eddie's mouth, glee written into his features. "Prob'ly gonna feel pretty vindicated right now," he snickered.
"Think it'll be good for him, too," Steve murmured, subconsciously rubbing the tip of his nose against Eddie's. "To see someone he admires is just like him."
Eddie's gaze turned fond. "You big softie."
"Yeah." Pressing one hand flat against Eddie's abs, Steve pushed him back a step. "You need to go home. I've got damage control to do."
Another pout. "I thought you missed me."
Steve's knees almost buckled. "I missed you so fucking much," he muttered, sliding his hands up Eddie's arms to pry his fingers from their grip on his hair. "But if you don't go now, I won't be able to concentrate on the test I'm s'posed to be running in sixth period."
With a dramatic sigh, Eddie relented, but grasped both of Steve's hands between their chests. "Fine," he murmured, kissing Steve's knuckles. Gazing up into his eyes, he whispered, "Love you, baby."
"Love you, too." Huffing a laugh through his nose as Eddie caught him in one last promise-filled kiss, Steve squeezed his love's hands and stepped back. "I love you, but go the fuck home."
Eddie dropped one of Steve's hands to give him a salute, bringing the other up to kiss his knuckles once more before finally releasing him. "Be gentle in your torture, princess," he smirked, blowing Steve a kiss as he backed towards the driver's side door. "Don't hurt those poor sixth period kids too badly."
Dragging his eyes away from Eddie's charm, Steve headed back across the parking lot, shooing students back. "Go on, everyone. There's still fifteen minutes left of lunch."
A engine revved behind him, followed by a quick double tap of a car horn. When Steve glanced back, Eddie stuck out his tongue and threw him a wink, slinging rock horns out the open window as he drove off.
"Well," Robin smirked as she appeared at Steve's elbow, arms folded, having successfully ushered the awed teenagers away. "That was about as subtle as a brick."
"Yeah..." Dragging a hand through his hair to give it some semblance of order after Eddie's grip, Steve sighed, "Not how I would've done it..."
Robin's smirk only grew. "So... I guess you're busy tonight."
Steve rubbed his eyes. "Raincheck on movie night."
"Sold." Bumping Steve's shoulder with her own, Robin made her way back into the school, snickering to herself.
After an afternoon of deflecting overly-probing questions about his personal life, Steve was relieved to be dumping his things onto the back seat of his car. Just as he reached for the driver's side door, however, he was stopped by a quiet, "Uh... Mr Harrington?"
"Christ alive," Steve muttered under his breath, pulling on his teacher face as he turned to face Dustin Henderson, flanked by his gaggle of friends. "Afternoon... Shouldn't you all be headed home?"
Shaking his head a little, Dustin had both hands grasping tightly at the straps of his backpack. "You, uh... That..." As he struggled with his words, Lucas gave his shoulder and impatient shove. "That was Eddie Munson," Dustin blurted out, clearly a little stunned as the words left his mouth.
Steve tucked his hands into his pockets and leaned back against his car. "It was."
The confirmation seemed to send a manic little buzz through the group of students. "But... how...?" Dustin stammered.
Nodding towards the school building, Steve commented, "He went to school here, y'know. Was a couple years above me, but had to take senior year four times before he graduated, so I was out of here before him."
Mike's eyes darted about wildly, seemingly piecing things together in his head. "Corroded Coffin's first album had a heap of songs about Eddie's high school sweetheart..."
"I wouldn't call it that," Steve hummed, tilting his head. "Wasn't until after he graduated and learned how to condition his hair that he finally had his first kiss, so..." With a shrug of his shoulder, Steve bit back a smirk at the stunned faces staring back at him. "Look... Nothing's changed," he sighed, watching Lucas' eyebrows shoot up. "I'm still your teacher. He's still the frontman you idolise. This doesn't have to be weird-"
"Everything's changed!" Lucas spluttered, eyes comically wide. "You're dating Eddie Munson! Eddie Munson's gay!"
Cocking an eyebrow, Steve pointed out, "Eddie's been gay a long time. The only difference is that you actually know now."
A moment of silence, then Will's voice; "Told you he was gay."
Steve couldn't keep himself from snorting. "Sure did," he smirked, giving Will an affirming nod.
"I guess..." Will seemed to brace himself, then said, "I guess it takes one to know one."
Swallowing the little swell of pride in his chest as the teenagers all looked to Will, Steve turned to his car and popped the driver's side door open.
"Oh..." Dustin blinked in shock for a moment, then nodded his head. "Good for you, man."
A murmur of agreement went around the group, Steve shaking his head fondly. "Now, I've gotta get home," he sighed, climbing into his car. "I haven't seen my partner in two months and I'd like to actually spend some time with him." He pulled the door closed and started his car, then lowered his window. "Enjoy your weekend," he farewelled, then disengaged the handbrake and set off home.
He pointedly ignored Max's call of, "You too, pillow princess!"
Later, lying half-dazed on their bed with Eddie's head on his chest, Steve found his fingers threaded through Eddie's dark curls, nails scritching gently at his scalp. "Missed you..."
Eddie hummed, his fingers tracing senseless shapes on Steve's stomach. "How'd the kids react?"
A scoff left Steve's mouth, Eddie lifting his head enough to prop his chin on Steve's chest. "Fucking... I had kids asking me things they really shouldn't be asking their teacher, and then your little fanclub waited outside to school to talk to me about you when I finished."
"Hmm... Is that your excuse for being late?" Eddie smirked.
"You surprised a bunch of your fans at school," Steve huffed, failing to glare at Eddie's smug grin. "One of them called me pillow princess as I drove off!"
"Aw..." Stretching to suck a kiss into Steve's collarbone, Eddie murmured, "But you are my pillow princess."
"Yeah, but I didn't need my students knowing that!"
Smirking as he pulled himself further up Steve's body so his evil smile was beaming down at him, Eddie snickered, "And how much you like sitting on me. Both in my lap and on my face-"
"Fucking hell," Steve groaned, squeezing his eyes shut.
"I thought you liked when I wrote songs about you," Eddie laughed, pressing teasing little kisses across Steve's face.
"Until I realised I had a bunch of CC fans in my classes and they found out I'm the one you wrote them for."
"What?" Trailing his fingers up Steve's body, Eddie hummed, "You don't like your students knowing how filthy you are?"
"No."
Thumbing at Steve's nipple, Eddie chuckled, "They'll forget in a week, baby, don't worry." He pressed a few kisses along Steve's jaw. "Attention spans are short, these days."
Steve grumbled, though he knew Eddie was right. "Guess I just have to make it through a week of sex jokes from teenagers."
"And being fawned over for bagging the hottest frontman around."
With a snort, Steve relented, "Yeah, that too."
"Besides, they prob'ly don't wanna think about you being railed, so I'm pretty sure they'll move on from the teasing quick."
Breathing a sigh, Steve combed his fingers through Eddie's hair, his thumb catching at the corner of Eddie's upturned mouth. "I guess." He tugged Eddie a little closer by his hair. "Still think you need to make it up to me."
Eddie's eyebrows rose gleefully. "Would've done sooner if you hadn't been late."
"Well, make it up to me now."
Sliding back down Steve's body, Eddie grinned, "Yes, princess."